Dark and Light
by megaeeveelutions
Summary: the slytherins have mysteriously disappeared and harry sets out to find them. its not what you think, read and review!
1. Chapter 1

**Dark and Light**

The Slytherins were gone. It had been all over _The Daily Prophet. _MASS DISAPPEARANCE the headline had read; no one had realised it was only Slytherins until a few weeks later when the Malfoys didn't turn up at the Ministry for their hearing. This had, of course, caused major panic in the magical community as the all the Slytherins were either on parole or in Azkaban and most were former Death Eaters. Naturally people had thought they were trying to resurrect the Dark Lord again.

As a result all Aurors were called off their cases, not that there had been many without the Slytherins, and were assigned to looking for the missing convicts.

However, as time went on and nothing happened, the public began to question why they were even looking for them because, as far as they were concerned, the world was better off without Slytherins anyway. The Aurors agreed and tried convincing Minster Shacklebolt to call off the search; although he only did so after a petition was sent round and signed by every witch and wizard in London.

It wasn't until Hogwarts reopened, three years later, that people really thought to question their actions.

This is one Auror's account of the 23rd of November in the year 2001- the year of the Snake…

A dark haired young man was sitting in an office, the Head Aurors office to be precise, when he got an owl. It flew in and crash-landed on his desk, knocking over an ink bottle, effectively ruining the report for the Minister that he'd been working on. As it righted itself he untied the envelope from its leg, recognising the handwriting as Minerva McGonagall's, now Headmistress of Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry.

The owl flew off as he was opening the letter, which read:

_Dear Mr Potter,_

_It is with utmost regret that I inform you that your services are required at Hogwarts._

_Do come quickly,_

_Headmistress McGonagall._

Services? That must mean there's trouble.

Not wasting any time Harry floo-ed straight into the Heads office at Hogwarts.

Upon arrival he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary so he relaxed at little from his tense state.

''Good afternoon Mr Potter''

Harry jumped and twisted round to face McGonagall, who was sitting in the throne-like chair behind the ancient, oak desk.

''Good afternoon Professor. What's the problem?'' he asked, wondering again why he'd been summoned.

''Take a seat Mr Potter.'' said McGonagall leaning back in her chair as if preparing for a long conversation.

''What's wrong?'' he tried hoping for an answer.

However when McGonagall didn't answer he took a seat and waited for her to begin.

They sat in silence for several minutes until Harry became uncomfortable but just as he was about to speak McGonagall began.

''I suppose you're wondering why I've asked you here?'' She sighed, then began again, not waiting for an answer. ''I assume you're aware of the situation with the Slytherins?''

Harry nodded. ''Yes Professor, they all went missing four years ago.''

''Correct, but, as you may not be aware, there have been no Slytherins in the school since then. In fact the Sorting Hat has failed to mention them even once in four years.''

Harry sat in shock for a few moments, processing the information and making a mental note to tell Hermione later.

Then, when he had collected himself, he asked ''But Professor are you sure? I mean the Sorting Hat knows there are four houses, it wouldn't just ignore one.''

''Well perhaps, but we're not here to discuss the Sorting Hat. I brought you here today to inform you that since the Slytherins left the….'' She trailed off for a moment, searching for the right words. ''Balance has been upset between the three Houses.''

''What do you mean?'' Harry asked, confused. ''The Houses were friends, well except the Slytherins. What balance was there to upset?''

McGonagall sighed again. ''You may not have noticed Mr Potter but there was a very fine balance between the four Houses: two of them were always feuding, and the other two were keeping peace, one of them was always good, one of them was always bad and the other two usually sided with the good if it came to war. Now, however, without Slytherins there is no 'bad' House therefore the balance has been upset. And, although you may disagree, there needs to be a 'bad' House in order to keep the balance.''

Harry thought about that for quite a while before asking: ''So which House is the bad House now Professor?'' In truth he was dreading the answer, mainly because he just couldn't imagine any of the other Houses being evil.

McGonagall closed her eyes as if wishing she weren't having to answer before choking out on word: ''Gryffindor.''


	2. Chapter 2

Harry sat in shock. This could not be happening. Gryffindor could not be evil. We were the good guys!

He looked up at Professor McGonagall who was looking at him with a mixture of pity and sadness on her face. He swallowed, trying to bring some moisture to his now dry mouth.

When he felt like he could answer he asked ''And what would you like me to do about it Professor?'' He had no control in Hogwarts so he didn't know how she expected him to help. Perhaps she thought people would do anything I ask them to because I'm Harry Potter. But how do you ask someone to stop being evil?

''We need you to find the Slytherins and restore the balance,'' answered McGonagall briskly.

Harry considered this before answering, ''Professor I worked on this case years ago, if we were going to find them we would have done so by now.''

''Well, Mr Potter, I should like you to at least try again, the fate of Gryffindor House rests in your hands.'' McGonagall looked at him pleadingly and Harry had to agree, after all he didn't want Gryffindor's to be known as evil in the years to come.

Later that night Harry sat in his cluttered living room rereading the case files for the Disappearances, and it was a big file what with almost two thousand profiles. Harry just wished they'd had as many leads 'cause so far he had nothing to go on.

Yawning, he checked his watch. 11:45. He put the file he had been reading to the side and went to bed where he drifted into a deep sleep.

_(Dream)_

_He was surrounded by bright light and he was falling, and as he was falling he heard voices chanting, as if from a distance, though he could not quite make out the words. Suddenly, he stopped falling and everything came into focus._

_He was standing in a forest clearing, light filtering down onto faces circled around him that he recognized from his school days. There was Blaise Zabini, Daphne Greengrass, Draco Malfoy, Severus Snape, Pansy Parkinson and many others. Harry focused on Malfoy expecting him to be the one to speak but instead Pansy Parkinson stepped forward, but made no move to talk._

_Harry broke the silence. ''Where are we?'' If he knew where they were then he would be able to take them home, but the Slytherins didn't answer, instead laughing loudly as if he'd told a funny joke._

_Pansy was the first to recover, answering him in a voice so different from Hogwarts that at first he did not recognise it, ''If we told you that then you'd be able to find us.'' _

_Harry waited for her to say something else but when she did not he asked a different question, hoping to get them talking so they might let slip where they were, ''Why did you leave?''_

_Pansy smirked and replied ''Because you crossed the line. Insulting us and killing we can handle but we won't stand for being tagged and having limits put on our magic like some _pet_.'' She was referring to when Minister Shacklebolt had the Slytherins charmed so that they couldn't use certain types of magic._

''_That was for our safety!'' Harry argued._

_The Slytherins laughed. ''You don't know _anything _about keeping yourselves safe, Potter! That's been our job for the last thousand years!''_

_Harry was confused, what did they mean? ''What do you mean? You guys hated us, the last thing on your mind was keeping us safe.''_

''_See that's where your wrong Potter'' Said Snape. ''I had to endure years of teaching brainless Hufflepuffs and know-it-all Ravenclaws, all the while pretending to hate them all and only like my house, just to keep you all safe.''_

''_Why? How? What were you protecting us from?''_

''_We protected you because we're Slytherins and it's what we do, what we have done for a thousand years,'' explained Pansy. ''You see, back when Hogwarts was founded, Godric Gryffindor was convinced that Salazar Slytherin was evil and refused to let his House mix with ours. And, of course, Slytherin realised that the four Houses could never work in harmony: one would always end up being thought of as evil, thereby creating distrust amongst all the Houses instead of just between two. So, being the noble wizard that he was, Slytherin sacrificed his own House for the good of the others. He created Purebloods and Mudbloods and started saying that he was better than Muggles because he was Pureblood. Later on he fought with Gryffindor and left the castle, but we continued on his quest and made enemies with the other Houses. We have to pretend to hate you in public and make it believable which means we have to practice at home, it basically takes up our entire lives. But now we've had enough, we're sick of you thinking you're better than us so we've left.''_

_It took Harry a long time to process this. Eventually he thought he'd made sense of it all._

''_You were protecting us from us?''_

''_Yes,'' said Malfoy. '' We practised the Dark Arts in the hope that you'd think us truly evil, distracting you from your own darkness, although some of us got sucked in and became Dark Wizards.''_

''_The only reason we followed Voldemort was because we didn't know how powerful he was and we thought that it'd convince you once and for all that we're evil,'' and Blaise Zabini._

''_Yeah and it worked. Ron was convinced you were all Death Eaters in sixth year,'' Harry agreed._

''_But we were sick of being thought of like that, so we came here,'' Pansy gestured to the forest. ''And we're not coming back, it's your fault we left. I wouldn't be surprised if, in a thousand years' time, the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws are celebrating the downfall of the Gryffindor Dark Lord. And then the balance will have been upset again and they'll fight amongst themselves until there's only one House left.''_

_Harry was aghast. He couldn't let that happen, imagine having only one House._

''_You've got to come back'' he said._

_The Slytherins laughed again, and suddenly everything was going blurry. He could hear the voices chanting again but this time he could make out the words:_

_We used to live to protect,_

_Never any gratitude did we collect,_

_Sacrificing our lives for yours,_

_We battled through all the wars,_

_We were Dark, we knew, _

_But you failed to see yourselves,_

_As others saw you,_

_Now you're going to live in endless plight,_

_Because you refused to see that there is no Dark and Light._

_Harry felt as if he was falling again, and then there was a second flash of light…_

He awoke with a start, trying to remember what he'd been dreaming about. He knew it had something to do with the Slytherins but the more he tried to grasp the details the faster they drained away. He lay back down and closed his eyes. Even though he couldn't remember the dream he had learned something from it: it was impossible to find the Slytherins. Where ever they were or whatever they were doing they wouldn't be found if they didn't want to be. He would still try, yes. But only because he'd promised McGonagall - he knew it was hopeless. Maybe, Harry mused, it was always meant to be like this. Or perhaps it was Gods way of punishing us, we'd had our shot at being good and we blew it so now we have to be evil for the rest of our lives. Or maybe we aren't evil, maybe we're just Grey. Because, after all, is there really such a thing as Dark and Light?

End~

a/n: hey guys thanks for reading. I will not be writing any more for this fic but if you have suggestions on what topic I should write about next pm me and I'll consider it,

REMEMBER TO REVIEW-M/E


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